Hyphens, Parentheses & the Dash

Hyphens -

Use a hyphen for compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine and with fractions used as adjectives.

    1. Thirty-eighth Street

    2. One-half cup

    3. Sixty-three students will take the exam.

    4. Fifty-four individuals joined our class.

Hyphenate a compound adjective that precedes a noun it modifies. Do not use a hyphen if the modifiers come AFTER the noun.

    1. A well-written book captivates the reader.

    2. A world-famous skier had an accident.

    3. A well-known author lived down the street.

    4. The chocolate-covered popcorn was delicious.

    5. The author was well known.

    6. The popcorn was chocolate covered.

Use a hyphen with the prefixes ex, self, all, anti, and between a prefix and a capitalized word.

  1. ex-husband

  2. ex-football player

  3. all-inclusive hotel

  4. anti-American

  5. mid-1990's

Parentheses ( )

  1. Use parentheses to enclose material that is not considered of major importance in a sentence.

    1. Harper Lee (1926-2016) wrote the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

    2. Aunt Constance (my mother’s aunt and my great-aunt) is coming to visit.

  1. Capitalize and use end punctuation for parenthetical matter that stands alone as a sentence. Do not capitalize and use end punctuation for parenthetical matter contained within a sentence.

    1. Complete the form. (Please print or type.)

    2. The protagonist (the author did not give him a name) is a sniper.


Dashes: How to Use Them